In the coming weeks, the Mystic Media Blog will be devoting our expertise into a series of articles detailing the ins and outs of Promotional Writing. The series will cover several topics, from general techniques and suggested processes, to press releases, websitecopy writing, and social media.

A press release is a published written announcement addressed to the media regarding a development in a business. The purpose of a press release is not only to announce the basics of exactly what is being released and when, but also to generate publicity. A press release is the quickest, easiest way to get an important promotional message out into the world and can result in multiple published articles.

The subject of a press release can be a new product, an upgrade, a new service, an upcoming event, a merger of two companies, anything NEW. The audience of a press release is not only consumers of your brand and consumers in your industry, but also reporters, editors and other members of the media looking for content relevant to their readers.

In order to garner the attention of the media, the writer must ensure that the announcement within the press release is in and of itself newsworthy. A newsworthy story contains information relevant to the general public. Relevant information can be a new rate on car insurance, or a new app which helps you organize your closet, or a new company intent on taking over the world – anything about which people would want to know. An effective press release properly explores the ins and outs of its subject (the new service or product or event), as well as the ramifications of its release in the context of the industry to maximize the reader’s knowledge of how the decision to buy or solicit could affect them.

An excellent press release not only informs the reader as to what is being announced, it also functions as an article written by a reporter in and of itself. The media isn’t going to publish your press release unless they are convinced it’s relevant to them and their readers. The press release shouldn’t just be an ad for your product or service, it should have an angle or point of view beyond trying to get the consumer to buy whatever is being sold. It should provide context on the industry in which the product or service is sold to further validate the importance of the unique contribution of the new product or service. If you can sell your product in the context of a news article about a specific subject relevant to readers, the media will pick up the story.

The Windows Phone 7 press release explores the negative impact of smartphones, then distances its new product from the negative, thereby selling a smartphone. The subject of the article, the negative impact of smartphones, could feasibly be found in any magazine. It indirectly attacks their competitors (namely the iPhone) by claiming people use their phones recreationally too much to avoid the real world. The Windows Phone 7, on the other hand, is optimized for efficiently managing tasks necessary for work so that the user can get off their phone and focus on the real world. The marketing department perfectly crafted an article which is newsworthy, including specific statistics, while simultaneously using the issue to provide a context for their product to stand out as a solution.

When structuring a press release, begin with a headline which captures attention. We went in-depth into how to attract attention with a title in Perfecting the Method. After your title, always front-load the logistics (the “what” and the “when”), then explore the significance of the release and the impact on the industry.

The second paragraph of a press release often contains a quote from the CEO or one of the higher-ups in the company. The quote personalizes the message and gives the executives of the company an opportunity to showcase their intellect with insight into both what makes the product special, and into the company’s relationship to the product. A memorable quote can be a news story in and of itself, so try to procure a quote which is significant, personal and precise.

The final paragraph of a press release often connects the new product or service being announced to the company’s other products and services.

When sending a press release out, always end with a line of continuous periods or number signs to show where the printed text ends. This makes it easy for journalists to insert their comments below your official press release, facilitating the readers’ ability to distinguish between your company’s official words and those of the commentator.

A press release should come with a press kit of some kind. A press kit is a collection of company information and articles put together to address questions the media might have on your release. It should catch the eye and include a gallery of photos to compliment your article. It’s recommended you invest money into the photography and visual presentation of the press kit to further validate the importance of the announcement by attracting attention through crisp presentation.

For more information on creating a press kit, check this informative article out over at Entrepreneur.

Once your press release is complete, you will also want to attract attention to it and generate additional publicity. There are several techniques to approaching this.

First, you should start by publishing the press release on your website. Promote the link on your site to your consumers through social media accounts.

When it comes to generating external publicity, you can craft a query letter addressed directly to relevant members of the media who may want to pick up your story, and/or you can utilize external sites such as PR Newswire, Business Wire, PRWeb, and eReleases which offer distribution services, effectively promoting your press release for you at a cost.

The goal of a query letter is to entice members of the media to read your press release and consider publishing the release itself and/or an article on it. Keep the letter simple, personal, and persuasive. Address the recipient by name, state your purpose (to promote the press release), introduce yourself and your company in separate paragraphs. The goal is to tease them into reading your whole press release, so keep it brief and entertaining.

Be sure to know your audience and only address query letters to members of the media in your industry who will be interested in your product or service. You should begin by compiling a contact list of key media outlets where you can reach your audience.

If you can write a smart, effective press release complete with eye-catching photos and a press kit, then entice members of the media to check out the press release with a tight query letter, all that’s left to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the publicity.

The Mystic Media Blog will be devoting our expertise into a five-part series of articles detailing the ins and outs of Promotional Writing. The series will cover several topics, including general techniques, suggested processes, press releases, websitecopy, and social media.

Promotional writing is any type of writing designed to sell or promote a product or service. It can be informational, such as a blog or newsletter, or direct as an advertisement. It can be the “About Us” section of a website, a description of a service, or a press release. Promotional writing is key to marketing any business. All writing associated with your brand must adhere to a quality consistent with your company or it runs the risk of deteriorating your name. Although certain techniques apply across the board for promotional writing, the medium spans several formats to which the writer must cater. For our first article on the topic, we will cover the general principles and goals of promotional writing to help you represent your business.

EXECUTE YOUR GOAL

The goal of promotional writing is to connect with your target audience. Whether or not they ultimately choose to act upon the impulse you desire to impart is beyond your control. If you succeed in clearly communicating the benefits of the product or service you are promoting, readers in the market for whatever is being sold are likely to follow-through. So long as the message you intend to impart is effective and precisely conveyed to the audience, you will have done your job. Thus, it’s vital to consider the audience’s perspective in crafting any piece.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

A consumer stumbles upon a piece of writing dedicated to promoting a product or service. They have the choice of reading it or not. Even if it applies to them, it doesn’t guarantee they are going to follow-through and closely examine the piece. As a promotional writer, you have to make your writing as easy to consume as possible. You must consider your target audience’s perspective and structure your piece based on how you expect your readers to consume it.

Is the piece something you can imagine someone reading at work, or is it something more dense they would read when researching a topic? How long do they have to read it? What parts would they skim? Is the piece geared more toward neophytes to the topic, or veterans seeking to enrich their knowledge? Each of these questions must be answered before you write, for they dictate the audience with which your writing must connect.

PERFECT THE STYLE

While there’s no formula for good promotional writing, there are certain generally accepted principles which apply across formats.

Direct, Concise, Targeted: Good promotional writing directly addresses a target audience with a clear, concise message. The message should be defined from the outset: this is a superior product or service. It’s important to be direct by getting to the “What” before the “Why”. The writer must target a specific audience. They must know who would read the piece and what they would be looking for. Every sentence must contribute directly to your message. The minute a reader senses something was written for the sake of taking up space, they will stop reading. Be considerate of their time. Do as much as you can with the attention they give you.

Accurate, Appealing, Persuasive: Good promotional writing accurately depicts the appeal of a product or service in a persuasive manner. Rather than resort to hyperbole, effective promotional writing allows the product to sell itself by presenting accurate, benefit-led facts. You must understand how the product or service appeals to your target audience before you sit down and write. Once the appeal is established, elaborate upon both the positive effects the product or service creates, as well as the negative effects it averts to craft a persuasive argument of why they must go out and obtain this specific product or service.

Smooth, Purposeful, Structured: Good promotional writing adheres to smooth, purposeful structure designed with the objective of creating the most efficient, enjoyable reading experience for the target audience. There are infinite ways to structure any given piece, but good structure plays into an audience’s expectation to clearly communicate points. Every sentence should directly follow the line of thinking preceding it and set-up the next point. General information and the overarching message should be front-loaded so readers who only have time for the first paragraph still understand the point of the piece.

IDENTIFY APPROPRIATE VOCABULARY

Identifying proper vocabulary for promotional writing can be a bit tricky. You don’t want to overload the reader with words they may not understand, but you also must assert your intelligence and don’t want to sound too colloquial. Acceptable vocabulary depends greatly on the target audience. Your word selection will be different if your target audience is a consumer of technology products versus if your piece was targeting professional application developers.

If you follow the guidelines above pertaining to promotional writing style, the flow of your writing should exude the intelligence you desire more than an elaborate vocabulary, which can sound pretentious when overdone.

For more techniques on vocabulary selection, check out this handy article by Writers & Artists.

CALL TO ACTION

A call to action is a statement which presents an opportunity for the audience to continue the dialogue regarding the topic, product, or company. A call to action could encourage the reader to contact the company by phone, click a link to the company’s website, follow the company on social media, share, comment, or link to another article where they can read more. A call to action is anything which feeds the audience’s desire to either continue the conversation, or take action and follow-through with whatever your desired action response is in writing the article. The goal of any promotional piece is to drive traffic to the product or service, thus a call to action is perhaps the most vital statement in the piece.

Online radio streaming players can help you increase visibility, attract new listeners, and gain access to a much broader audience.

If online radio is a new concept, it is quickly becoming “the” medium to consume music and news. Recent reports state that amongst 13-35 year olds, online radio streaming accounts for about half of their radio and music listening time. As the market for online radio grows it is important to tap into its huge potential now and outpace your competition.

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Our designers can help craft custom players guaranteed to increase your audience. A fully loaded player also comes with built-in advertising to help you generate additional revenue. National sponsors love the reach online radio streaming provides and are spending more and more advertising dollars as a result. Along with promoting a vast network of national sponsors, you can advertise and charge your venues and clubs where you perform. Our players offer the ability to create custom video pre-rolls that are seen every time the player is opened. This provides maximum exposure and can bring in a substantial amount of revenue.

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As stated above, radio streaming provides one of the best ways to help a DJ attract new listeners and get maximum exposure to your current fan base. A custom player can be used to educate and entertain listeners.

Imagine having a tool box full of tools to help build a successful radio streaming business.

A fully loaded custom media player can run audio and video pre-rolls. Educational programming can be uploaded to the On-Demand player and video programming can be displayed for your sponsors as well. Other advantages to a custom player include making audio/video announcements of special events, having coupons available for listeners to download and much more.

Online radio is the radio of the future. Don’t hesitate to leverage the power of a custom online media player to increase visibility and listening audience.

As a part of its iOS 7 software release, Apple will unveil iTunes Radio. With it, Apple hopes to revolutionize its mobile advertising strategy. Apple has inked deals with McDonalds, Nissan, and Pepsi to make iTunes Radio the number one online streaming service around. Their goal is to effectively unite music and advertising, and as one of the largest untapped marketing opportunities available on the internet, this appears to be attainable.

According to a report by Forrester Research, internet radio stations offer a powerful medium to marketers and advertisers. It is a unique platform providing a way to make a guaranteed impression on users. Website pages overwhelm users with multiple advertisements diluting the impact of each message. Online radio advertisements are less invasive and end up being more memorable.

The following are two statistics many mobile marketing strategists are paying attention to:

Only 6% of adults are willing to pay for access to ad-free radio streaming services.

Approximately 44% of online radio listeners who remembered ads (approx. 58%) took some action in relation to it.

With the release of iTunes Radio and iOS 7, Apple is making a strong bid to become the number one platform for all things digital. Tap into the power of online radio streaming and guarantee your message is not only heard but is acted upon. Mystic Media is a leader in designing marketing strategies and advertisements for online radio stations, and harnessing the power of iOS 7. Contact us today to learn how your company can leverage the power of online radio streaming.

Is AM/FM radio out of touch with today’s listening audience? Maybe. Recent data reveals that there is a 70% difference in the top 10 streaming radio playlists and traditional radio playlists. While this statistic may not signal the end of AM/FM radio, it does signal that online radio is the new world order, driving song and artist popularity. So, if AM/FM radio wants to keep its current customer base, they’d do well to pay attention to online radio listening habits.

Another significant statistic in the music world is the decline in digital music sales. The overall market share for digital albums is 43%. However, a 2013 Nielsen Report states that sales are down almost 5% from the same 6-month period in 2012. More than 50 billion audio and video streams occurred in the first 6 months of 2013. Overall, online radio streaming is up 24% since last year. As attitudes about music ownership and listening preferences shift, it is clear that online radio is mounting an increasingly successful takeover.

For years, car companies have delivered the power to tame the open road. Now car companies offer the power to control content with connected cars. Partnerships between online radio stations and car manufacturers are transforming the way we listen to music. Companies like Pandora, SiriusXM, and iHeartRadio have inked deals with major car manufacturers to deliver content to the customer in the way the customer wants.

Receivers in cars that are solely dedicated to AM/FM or satellite will soon be museum pieces. And future dashboard units installed in cars will enable users to access any online radio station they desire. Diverse content delivery allows customers to control what they hear. With that kind of power, why would anyone want to listen to AM/FM radio again?

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Traditionally, people listened to the radio either at home or in the car. Now, the emergence of online radio streaming has created a whole new listening environment. More and more people are plugging in their earbuds and streaming radio at work and at the gym. This new pathway for advertisers enables them to target consumers at higher rates and more effectively.

Brands who have traditionally avoided audio-based advertisements are witnessing an exciting development. By tracking listening habits, you can uncover new insights into who your costumers are and what they like. Online radio streaming provides the opportunity to reach a larger targeted audience for both B2B and B2C brands.

Mystic Media knows how to reach these people “right where they live.” Contact us to learn more about what online radio streaming can do for your business.

While video didn’t necessarily kill the radio, online radio streaming is slowly strangling it to death. Recent reports state that amongst 13-35 year olds, online radio streaming services accounted for about half of their radio and music listening time. As the market share for online radio grows, here are some more figures that AM & FM Radio should pay particular attention to:

Online streaming rose from 17% in 2011 to 23% in 2012 – 1% less than AM & FM radio, which slipped 2% from its position last year.

Pandora, iHeartRadio and Spotify are the top three services accounting for about 61% of the online radio streaming market share.

Cell phones and other mobile devices are increasingly being used to access online radio services.

Few AM & FM radio stations have apps available to their listeners

All in all, AM & FM radio listening is beginning to decline, and will continue to decline, unless traditional radio can find a way to compete in the mobile marketplace. Since free online streaming has increased in popularity with the younger age demographic, it could be too late. However, time will tell if the old dog can learn a new trick.